Category Archives: Caucus Announcements

We are holding our first Steering Committee Meeting since the 2018 DPH State Convention. This meeting will be largely introductory and logistics related. Our Steering Committee meetings have been and will continue to be open to others to join and listen in. This meeting will be limited in scope to the business of the Steering Committee outlined in the agenda below.

We will begin with a brief introduction to the Zoom Video Conferencing App. It has consistently been rated the best app for remote meetings with features that conveniently allow for orderly and efficient communication. Once everyone on the call has a cursory understanding of the app, we will move into the rest of the agenda. We will be using this technology for General Membership meetings as well in order to further our goal to be as inclusive as possible, while still making progress on our goals for the term.

We all live within the Environment and it should and could be everyone’s main concern. I look forward to welcoming all voices and to many productive meetings over the next two years.

The First of a Four Part SeriesFOOD SECURITY 101
An Introduction to Food Security in Hawaiʻi Nei

Why is food security such a hot topic at the capital?
What exactly does it mean to be food secure and how venerable is our State?
Please join this live 90-minute call in discussion with some of the States top experts. You may attend either in person or from the comfort of your own home. Call in information will be provided during the event.

This event will air on cable channel 49
March 14, 2012
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

In order to allow more people to view our upcoming Congressional Candidate Roundtable on February 29, we have arranged to hold the entire event at Olelo’s Mapunapuna Station. In this way the roundtable can be viewed Statewide on channel 53 from 7:00 pm to 8:30, and neighbor Island members unable to attend in person may call in with questions during this live broadcast.

This is a first for us, and we would like to thank Olelo for helping us pull together this last minute change. Being able to broadcast live statewide is a opportunity we simply couldn’t pass up.

A reminder of our original email invitation follows:

Democratic congressional candidates, Bob Marx, Rafael Del Castillo, and Esther Puakela Kiaaina, have consented to join the Environmental Caucus’s next General meeting to discuss their national environmental concerns. We hope that you can join us as well. (Mufi Hannemann was also invited, but he is unable to attend due to a prior engagement. Tulsi Gabbard originally accepted our invitation, but has since discovered a schedule conflict and will no be able to attend. We have only invited officially declared democratic candidates, and undeclared candidates will not be represented.)

Date:
Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Time: 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm
(special note: Congressional Broadcast beings at 7:00, so if you are on the neighbor islands and wish to attend the first hour of our general meeting, you will need to use our gotomeeting connection as usual. Contact lynnmariesager@gmail.com if you need the meeting login and password.)

Agenda:
We will spend the first fifty minute reporting on Caucus concerns, including our May elections, SCC nominations, upcoming resolutions, and important environmental bills that are currently working their way through our State Capital. We hope that all our official members will come by during that first hour to cast their votes and help us move forward with a quorum of votes.

At 7:00 pm that same evening, we will begin to broadcast an open “Townhall” with our candidates. All attending candidates will have up to ten minutes to speak about their primary environmental concerns. Following their presentations, we will open up the room for questions from the audience and callers.

Here are just a few of the national issues we hope to discuss with our Candidates:

Natural Gas and concerns about Fracking
The Tar Sands Pipeline Controversy
Off Shore Drilling
Alaskan Wilderness Reserves
Water rights and subsidies; including Colorado River depletion
Empowering or dismembering the EPA
Alternative energy investments
Views on Climate Change: Is it Fact or Fiction?
How do we attain a sustainable future?

This is a wonderful chance to come down and meet the people who want to represent you in the US Congress.

Neighbor Island members may view the event on Channel 53, and call in with questions. The phone number will be provided during broadcast.

We just emailed the December Newsletter. If you didn’t get it you need to join the Environmental Caucus Mailing list http://goo.gl/uLSWQ.

When you want to add your thoughts to an issue currently before the Environmental Council go to our discussion of issues at http://goo.gl/b73SW. You will need to log into your Google account. If an issue you would like to have discussed is not in this list, or if you have problems, contact Bill Sager at bsager42@gmail.com.

When you want to advocate for or against legislation there are two tools that are indispensable. You need to understand how to use the Hawaii Policy Portal and you need to know how to track legislation using the Legislative Reference Bureau’s website. Email bsager42@gmail.com when you need help. One of the primary goals of the Environmental Caucus is to help you become a more effective Environmental Advocate.

When you are working on any environmental issue, please let us know what it is. If it is an issue the Environmental Caucus supports, we can help you. There is strength in numbers, and our goal is to Malama Hawaii by supporting the environmental community’s advocacy efforts, initiating our own legislation when needed, enabling a strong environmental commitment in the Democratic Party platform and by developing a strong cadre of environmental advocates. We need to work together.

The Solar Industry vs. HECO – Not So Hostile
Flickr: US Army Environmental Command

It wasn’t a boxing match. But representatives from Hawaiian Electric Co. and the solar industry presented opposing visions of Hawaii’s clean energy future Monday at a meeting sponsored by the Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii.